Nets Avoid How “Italian Journalist” Works for Communist Paper

Example of Media Bias:

The excerpt below is an example of media bias by OMISSION. It is from the March 8th “CyberAlert”, found at MediaResearchCenter.org. (For a definition of OMISSION, look under “Types of Media Bias” in the right column.)

Though Giuliana Sgrena is hurling accusations that her car did not ignore commands to stop and was fired upon at a checkpoint because she was targeted by U.S. troops in Iraq, with rare exception the networks have not considered relevant to her credibility how she’s a vociferous critic of U.S. policy in Iraq and works for a communist newspaper in Rome. Stories over the weekend and on Monday about the wounding of her and the killing of the Italian agent, Nicola Calipari, who rescued her from her kidnappers, repeatedly described her just as an “Italian journalist,” “Italian reporter” or “former hostage.” NBC’s Keith Miller made a rare exception Sunday night when he identified her newspaper, Il Manifesto, as “communist.” On Monday night, Dan Rather led with how “U.S. troops opened fire on a car carrying an Italian reporter” and “the reporter insists she was deliberately targeted.” Kimberly Dozier soon relayed how “many Iraqi officials have complained American soldiers too often fire first and check what they hit later.” (For more on this article, click here.)

Identifying Media Bias

To accurately identify different types of bias, you should be aware of the issues of the day, and the liberal and conservative perspectives on each issue. (See our chart “Conservative vs. Liberal Beliefs”)

Types of Media Bias:

Omission – leaving one side out of an
article or a series of articles over a
period of time... (read more)

Selection of Sources – including
more sources that support one view
over another... (read more)

Story Selection – a pattern of
highlighting news stories that support
one side of an issue over another...
(read more)

Placement – the location in the paper
or article where a story or event is
printed; a pattern of placing news
stories so as to downplay information
supportive of one side... (read more)

Labeling – comes in two forms:
1. Tagging of person from one party
or group with extreme labels while
leaving the other side unlabeled or
with more mild labels.
2. A reporter not only fails to identify
a liberal or conservative as such, but
also describes the person or group
with positive labels, such as “an
expert” or “independent consumer
group”... (read more)

Spin – occurs when the story has only
one interpretation of an event or
policy, to the exclusion of the other.
Spin involves tone- a reporter’s
subjective comments about objective
facts... (read more)